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A haven of stability: These volatile times of Brexit insecurity could push investors to look more at the German student housing market

by Felix Bauer

Student housing in Germany has evolved into an attractive institutional asset class, complementing other specialist real estate investments in the modern investor’s portfolio and providing stability during times of market volatility.

The growing popularity of German student housing among investors has been reflected in transaction volumes that almost doubled year-on-year in 2015 and that have quadrupled since 2011. Volumes increased from €276 million in 2014 to €525 million in 2015, albeit the German market is still considered to be niche in comparison to the UK student accommodation market, where there were more than €6.3 billion of transactions in 2015.

The sector is attracting the attention of a larger, more diverse group of international investors, who are now competing for opportunities with the more traditional local owner-managers. Sophisticated institutional investors like insurance companies, pension funds and special funds, as well as international as